Here is a story the nativists of Europe do not want you to read. Switzerland, that alpine bastion of direct democracy and neutrality, has just delivered a verdict that will sting like a cold wind off the Matterhorn. Early projections show that Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to cap the population at 10 million.
The initiative, pushed by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, was a blunt instrument: once the headcount hit ten million, immigration would be severely curtailed. It failed. Why?
Because the Swiss, for all their insular pride, are not fools. They understand that their economy runs on foreign hands: the bankers, the engineers, the nurses, the seasonal workers who pick their grapes and clean their hotels. The anti-immigration campaign was loud, but it was also intellectually empty.
It offered a vision of a smaller, purer Switzerland by severing the country from the global labour market. But the Swiss have seen the chaos of Brexit across the Channel. They have watched France tear itself apart over identity.
They prefer their cheese fondue to cultural civil war. Let us be clear: this is not a victory for open borders. It is a victory for common sense.
The Swiss know that a nation that closes its doors becomes a museum, not a country. They voted to remain a living, breathing society. The rest of Europe should take note.
